Posts tagged “Albert Lea”

These littles are very dear to my heart. They just so happen to be my niece and nephew who live just far enough away to make taking photos a little hard to coordinate with school and work schedules. Needless to say, I was thrilled to finally have them back in my studio for some fun portraits documenting their ages (4 & 7).
The outfits their mama dressed them in were adorable and classic and so fitting for their ages. Camellia loves the camera and strutted her stuff like a girl who has seen a few episodes of America’s Next Top Model. Such a honey.
And JP, he’s golden. He really is. My parents get to spend lots of time with them since they live right next door and they never have a bad word to say about either of them. Gotta love grandparents.
I hope you love these images as much as I do… well, maybe that’s asking a lot if you’re not also related to them, but leave me a comment below and let me know which picture is your favorite!
Enjoy!
Becca

My brother-in-law, Kris, got on April 13th to the loveliest gal. Her name is Katie and her mom owns Addie’s Floral in Albert Lea, Minnesota. So I knew their wedding flowers were going to be beautiful for sure!
(Funny fact: I chose Addie for my wedding flowers when I got married to Andy over 10 years ago!)
After quite a bit of thought over having an outdoor wedding at their place in a rustic barn setting, wedding was held in Albert Lea, MN at the Methodist Church. Which was a good thing because there was quite the crowd for this beautiful couple!
I had the honor of being chose as their photographer, Andy was an usher, and our son, Collin was ring bearer! He looked so handsome in his suit!!! I was so excited to see him and Andy all dressed up for the wedding.
I’ll admit there are quite a few extra pictures of Collin mixed in the proofs.
*insert guilty grin*
After the wedding, the couple stopped at Pub 69 in Twin Lakes for a quick drink before heading to Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, IA for the reception.
I was thrilled with their reception choice. #1 because it’s a very photogenic venue inside. #2 the food is awesome and served very fast! #3 it’s only 7 miles from my studio/home!
(Another fun fact: My younger brother also had his wedding reception there.)
They had me take portraits from “getting ready” until their first dance and the father-daughter/mother-son dance. Which is just right for designing a storybook wedding album. I can’t wait to get to work on it! Although I must say, I’m going to be a little jealous since my own wedding portraits aren’t this good!
Enjoy!
Becca
P.S. I apologize (sort of) for sharing so many images. Usually I can narrow it down a bit more, but it’s hard when it’s your own family!!!

I was so busy with photo sessions this last fall, that I wasn’t able to post as many of my sessions on my blog as I would have liked… so I’m going to play a little catch-up now, in these blustery days of winter that are a little slower on the shooting side of things. I am still crazy busy with making business plans for this coming year, organizing my studio and preparing for taxes, but at least I’m near a computer and can take a little break for a few minutes to blog about some of these amazing sessions I am dying to share with you.

Without any further ado… Let me show you some fantastic portraits I took of Dylan.

I fell in love with his mom on the phone. That’s right. She’s super straight-forward and one of those people that “lays-it-all-out-there-for-you” kind of people. MY KIND OF PERSON! 🙂

So I knew right away that her son, Dylan, was a nice looking guy that enjoyed wearing more trendy clothes, he was big into sports (soccer and track in particular) and had a sweet Jeep that he’d love to get some shots with.
ALRIGHT! I was off and running with this one!

We started at the studio, captured some great, more traditional, yet modern portraits. Just keeping it nice and simple. Natural expressions, always key!

Next, we headed to the Big Ol’ City of Albert Lea… LOL! Yeah, you heard me, I said big city… Those of you from around here know that is a little bit of a joke. But it’s truly a great place to go for a variety of backgrounds. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I yearn to live closer to an actual city that would have TONS of options, but then I would worry about the safety of my customers…

Anyhow, you should know by now that I don’t need a big fancy city to find the PERFECT backdrop for senior portraits. We have so many great locations, right here, locally, and I plan on opening your eyes to them! (Well, without giving away my top-secret locations!!!) 😉

Although, it’s rather obvious we did some of these at Tiger Field, which was totally appropriate since that’s where Dylan has all his home sporting events. I would much rather do on-location sporting images, than take one of those in-studio shots with all the uniforms lying on the floor or hanging behind the kid… ugh! They make me want to barf! (excuse my drama)
Oh! What’s that you say? You think you’ve seen an image like that I’ve taken??? Well, you caught me… I may have done them once or twice before… but ONLY on request! And even then, I always try some other ideas as well, because indoor sports portraits can be very cool. I’ll admit that much.

As you can see, we captured Dylan in some great locations and captured all the different sides of his personality, which made mom VERY happy and ended up in some AWESOME collages that will hang on their walls and be proudly displayed at his graduation open house. Which is what this whole senior portrait experience is really all about. (That, and being treated like a Rock Star for the day!)

This couple is so cute! They are like opposites as far as looks go, with his red hair, fair skin and blue eyes and her dark hair, brown eyes and gorgeous darker complexion. (I just think Jill is so exotic looking!) 🙂
I had a blast at their engagement session early this summer so I knew we’d be sure to have fun at their wedding. I was pretty disappointed that the weather didn’t cooperate for outdoor portraits because it was cold – which we can deal with – but it was also very windy! UGH! Nothing ruins a good outdoor session like wind that whips around so much that you can even find a place blocked by it. Alas, I still kept checking and after formals got lucky and the wind was quieted enough to snap a couple quick outdoor shots of just the bride and groom before, whoosh!, up it came again and we hustled back inside.
The colors for Jill and Brent’s wedding were blue and black and they pulled it off, amazingly well. I loved the huge bouquet of white roses Jill had. It looked AMAZING and I’m pretty sure she got all the flowers and decor from Jolene at Accents in Alden… at least it looked like her work. She IS the best decorator around!!! 🙂
The reception was held at the American Legion in Albert Lea, MN and they sure had that place looking magical! I am a huge fan of the round paper lanterns that have been tremendously popular the last few years. They are just so festive!
Enjoy!
Becca